Tuesday, September 11, 2018

In the Art Room: Painting with Children

Recently, I've been sharing all of the painting projects my students are working on. Turns out, nearly EVERYONE is painting (except for 4th...they are SEWING, eep!) and my drying racks overfloweth. As I've been posting our projects and our painting set up, I have gotten a lot of questions...from what paint we are using to how the kids clean their brushes to how we keep out paint trays so neat (or try to). I though it would be best to share the answers in a video. This video features me teaching my kindergarten students on the very first days of painting. We cover how to properly hold a brush, how to clean our paint brush and how to keep our paint trays bright and colorful. Here you go:

I hope that helps! I find that I'm not a very strict teacher...nor am I very consistent...but one thing that I am pretty tough about: painting. Once we establish those proper painting techniques early on, we can start creating things like this:

To kick off the school year, my third graders are weaving. Some of my classes are circle loom weaving while others are tree weaving. For our circle looms, we are using large Chinet plates. On our first day, we painted concentric circles and on our second, our focus was on patterns. Keep you posted on this one...we are stoked to weave next week!

In the past, I've always used either ice cube trays or egg cartons for paint trays. But the ice cube trays are a mess because I'm constantly covering them with plastic wrap and the egg cartons have holes and tend to leak. When I found that a friend on IG was sharing that there are ice cube trays WITH LIDS, I knew I had to get some! You can find these on Walmart...for the best deal.

I mean...I just can't get enough!

I wanted to share with you a view of my space...so you could see where are drying racks are. I have a drying rack positioned at the end of each group of two tables. This prevents my kids from roaming the room with wet paintings. I also try to keep a trash can near the racks so the kids can dispose of whateverness as they need. I don't let the kids wash their hands at the sink unless they are exceptionally messy...I have 30 minute art classes, I don't have time for that!

Just a little peak at these landscapes created by my third graders...these will be for their tree weavings. I am loving the colors! They had to create two practice landscapes too...you can see one on the left. More to come!

What do you wear when everyone is painting? This ensemble, of course...and mismatched shoes cuz why not?! I hope the video and some tips help! Please feel free to leave questions on the comments, friends!

Hi Cassie! Thanks so much for sharing your painting tips. I would love to know your clean up routine when it comes to painting with children --cleaning/putting away brushes, watercups refilled for the next class, getting kids to put their artwork on the drying rack, tables wiped down etc. What amount do you have your students responsible for and in what order do you have them do it in? I just can't seem to crack this with my classes!